Hi Lulu Art fans.   Kate on the blog today to talk a little bit about the new Marabu Mixed Media Sprays in the Lulu Art store.   Marabu sprays are described as brightly coloured waterbased acrylics, for light porous surfaces such as canvas, paper, and wood.  They are intermixable, water thinnable, quick drying, lightfast and waterproof.

Now you all know I’m a total Lindy’s spray die hard, so trying a new spray can be a bit challenging for me as I have no idea how they will react with other products or what I can combine these new sprays with – so I thought I’d give them a little road test with some of my favourite stuff.

The things I need to test are:

• Are they REALLY permanent or do they reactivate when liquid or paint is applied over the top?
• Can you draw on top of them?
• Do they layer and how transparent are they?
• Do they stay vibrant?

To answer these questions I’ve put a few of the Marabu sprays through their paces and created a Donna Downey inspired art journal page – you can see the page and the steps used to create it in the following clip.

I’ve created a quick video so you can see these in action for yourself.

How are these different from Ink Sprays?

Hmm – well this may depend on a few things and might need more testing, just in case the paper I used or the products make a difference!

1. They are absolutely 100% permanent when dry!
2. There is a small ball bearing in the bottles to help mix the paint.
3. They are a sprayable acrylic paint (not an ink or dye).
4. They are more opaque than ink based sprays.
5. It is recommended to clean the sprayer each time the product is used to prevent blockages.

The verdict?

The Marabu acrylic sprays are a great Mixed Media spray and I can absolutely see a use for these in multi-layered artworks!  They layer well, though lighter colors disappear over darker colors, which is to be expected.  The colours are not reactivated by liquid or paint, so crisp colours can be created over the top, even with white.

The products play well with stencils and do not seem to wick as much as ink sprays when used – but do need to be washed off the stencil straight away.  They are NOT the same as ink sprays and products will behave as if over any other acrylic paints ie: the surface becomes somewhat slick and non-porous, eg: other acrylic paint goes on smooth over the top, but the surface is easily marked by pencils.  Weird but true fact – pencils wipe off with a baby wipe when used over the sprays – ask me how I know this 🙂

Depending on how they have been applied you can sometimes see the little particles of acrylic paint and this creates fine patterns (though only when sprayed over a wet surface) – which is a cool effect but dilutes the colour slightly.

The colors stay wonderfully bright, though are less ‘clean’ in colour than ink sprays, probably due to the opacity!  The gold is STRONG and does not play well with other products – by this I mean you can see it sitting on top of all other products and nothing seems to layer over it other than thick gesso or perhaps heavy body acrylics, it acts as a resist!

I’ll be using these on my projects when permanent colors are required, the fact that they really are permanent and there is no bleed-through is brilliant!!  These will be a handy addition to my mixed media toolbox.

SUPPLIES

• Marabu Mixed Media Sprays – Reseda, Aquamarine, Carribean, Raspberry,  Lavender and Gold
• Donna Downey: Finding Strength stencil and Script Numbers stencil
• Jane Davenport: Magic Wand pencils, Mermaid Markers, Glitz Sea Markers, Acrylic Paint and gesso
• Dylusions Square Journal
• Black Heavy Gesso
• Tim Holtz Stencil: Splotches 
• Water Brush
• Black Marker

I hope you’ve learned a little more about the Marabu Mixed Media sprays if you have any questions, just leave them in the comments.

Kate